Advice on avoiding some of the pitfalls that can be involved in wine investment. News of wine investment scams. Say no to cold callers. Don't buy investment wines from companies you don't know or haven't checked out.
See page (right hand column) of companies from whom I wouldn't buy wine. Advice is always free, although there is a donate button on right-hand-side of the blog.

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Sunday, 19 January 2014

An sadly expensive cautionary tale!Select Bordeaux Ltd was set up 28th October 2009. Since 28th January 2012 the sole director has been 29-year-old Salman Rahman. The investor (UJ) tells how they were contacted by Select Bordeaux offering to sell wine they had bought from Vinance plc, now in liquidation. They agreed to sell some of their wine (£40,000) through Select Bordeaux Ltd. Unfortunately it appears that Salman Rahman's Select Bordeaux Ltd has taken UJ's wine and failed to fulfil their part of the bargain by not passing on the money from the agreed sale.

The accounts (since 31.12.2013) and the annual return (25.11.13) for Select Bordeaux Ltd are both overdue. Their registered office and trading address – 6th Floor, International House, 223 Regent Street, London W1B 2QD is a well known accommodation and virtual office address.

Anyone else having problems with Select Bordeaux Ltd should file a complaint through Action Fraud.

This looks to be a classic white knight tale. If contacted by a company offering to help out following another company disappearing or going into liquidation, do not fall for their speil no matter how convincing it may be. White knights should be treated as bad news. They have probably got your details through buying or acquiring a sucker list.

UJ's story:

'Thank
you for responding to my email.

We originally had our wine invested with
a company called Vinance, and as you are aware, they went into
liquidation. We had already paid in advance for en primeur wines (were they ever bought by Vinance?), which
didn't appear and lost a lot of money but at least the majority of the
wine was returned and subsequently stored with Albany
Vintners.

We were cold called by Select Bordeaux
where of course we initially were not interested. They persisted and
we did speak at length to them of our anxieties and for every problem
we raised they seemed to have an answer. We asked for the
pitfalls should the wine not be sold, how it would be returned etc and of course
they had a plausible response.

They initially gave us a valuation for
all of our wine and it did seem very reasonable. We decided on hindsight
to only sell half of it and this was duly arranged. We signed
the agreement and paid Arc to deliver it to Vinotheque.

The arrangement was for the purchaser to
send through the payment to them, this would be cleared, and funds
deposited into our bank account.

After waiting a while we received an
email to clarify that the purchaser was unable to send through the
payment and the deal had fallen through. They suggested
trying again by sending this out onto the market or we could have our wine
back. This we decided to do and as instructed, confirmed in
writing and sent our letter first class, to their office stating that our wine
should stay in Vinotheque's warehouse but put into the Albany
Vintners account.

Now the fun begins.

Started ringing after a few days and
only got as far as the lady that answers the phone who always said that
the lines were busy and would arrange to get someone to call me back. Didn't ever happen.

We constantly rang - daily - by this
time. The lady probably had our number on her screen so always knew who
it was and what to say. She eventually said that someone had been
looking for our letter and it hadn't arrived and to wait until after
Christmas whereupon they would start back in the office on the 6th
January.

Again, we rang and again we couldn't
speak to anyone. I emailed our contact Johnathan Lee (he
had previously emailed to say that he would be away from the office
and to speak to David Saunders). We had never spoken to this character
and again, we still haven't.I rang Select again and asked outright
if the Company was still trading and she said the Director was in
- all the staff were off with colds - he was extremely busy and would
get back to me. Ha ha!

I have tried to ring the number given to
me by Johnathan Lee and this was answered by a different lady who
confirmed that the Company had gone. I tried the number listed on
the website that we always ring and that now was a dead line.

I then began to feel particularly uneasy
about things and contacted Vinotheque*. They were very helpful
but wouldn't be able to give me any information as the Select Bordeaux
account was still 'live'. They suggested I email them with our details
and they would pass this onto their Director David Hogg.
I rang again at the beginning of this
week and spoke with him. After a lengthy conversation, they confirmed
that the wine that was delivered into their warehouse on the
4th November 2013 had in fact gone straight out and was sold on the
7th November 2013, resulting in a total loss of £40,000 of our
wine. He did confirm that the company is under investigation and to contact the
Police.

This we did who directed us to Action
Fraud and I completed an online form.

So, this is how we have been left. Feeling particularly gullible and extremely stupid.

I
hope you can warn others.'

••

*NB: Vinotheque is the private reserve section of London City Bond, one of the UK's largest bonded warehouse and regulated by HMRC. Apart from providing storage it has no other connection with Select Bordeaux Ltd.

Diamond investment scams are covered by Adrian Goldberg this morning on 5 live Investigates on Radio 5 Live. Vulnerable, elderly people conned by high pressure boiler room sales tactics to invest in either over-priced diamonds or diamonds that do not actually exist. programme warns that it is very difficult to establish the value of diamonds as many of the trades are done privately – 'value guesswork'.

Adrian Goldberg speaks to the son of a man in his 70s, who has recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, who invested around £90,000 in diamonds following frequent calls and receiving some professional looking brochures. Unfortunately the son has not been able to trace the diamonds as yet.

Ex-diamond broker tells of 'sucker lists'. Brief mention of links with wine investment. Includes an interview with Detective Inspector Matthew Bradford of the City of London Police, who warns that these scams/frauds are run by organised criminals.

Saturday, 11 January 2014

Along with the Insolvency Service HM Revenue and Customs are also petitioning to close down Bordeaux Fine Wines Ltd. Their petition was published in the London Gazette on Thursday 9th January 2014. Part of the HMRC petition:

Notice: 1971742 (Issue: 60748)

Date: 9 January 2014

Issue Number: 60748

Page number: 381

Publication Date: Thursday, 9 January 2014

Notice Code: 2450

Petitions to Wind Up (Companies)

In the High Court of Justice (Chancery
Division)

Companies Court No
8692 of 2013

In the Matter of BORDEAUX FINE WINES
LIMITED

(Company Number 06701468) and in the Matter
of the Insolvency Act 1986

A Petition to wind up the above-named
Company, Registration Number 06701468, of Abbey Orchard Street, London, SW1P
2HT formerly of Imperial House, North Street, Bromley, Kent, BR1 1SD, presented
on 9 December 2013 by the Commissioners for HM Revenue and Customs, of Bush
House, Strand, London, WC2B 4RD, claiming to be Creditors of the Company, will
be heard at the Royal Courts of Justice, 7 Rolls Buildings, Fetter Lane, London
EC4A 1NL, on 3 February 2014*, at 1030 hours (or as soon thereafter as the
Petition can be heard).

The Insolvency Service's petition to close Bordeaux Fine Wines Ltd in the public interest is due to be heard on 26th February 2013.

It remains to be seen whether Ken Gundlach, the company's sole director, will contest these petitions. It would, however, not be a surprise if they are not contested as Gundlach is in the process of closing down a number of his companies.

* Update: The petition by HMRC to wind up Bordeaux Fine Wines Ltd has been put back to 3rd March 2014. If the Insolvency Service's petition to wind up the company in the public interest succeeds on 26th February then HMRC's petition will not need to be heard.

•••

Andrew Penman 'race-stopped' Ken Gundlach at Lingfield Racecourse to ask him about a Mirror reader's expensive wine bought from Bordeaux Fine Wines Ltd. The reader had sunk his life savings in these wines supposedly stored at London City Bond. Unfortunately there is no sign of them at LCB.

Nor, apparently, is there any sign of 10 cases bought by a middle aged woman who also sunk a substantial part of her life savings in wine from Bordeaux Fine Wines Ltd. She bought 28 cases in all but there are only 18 of them at London City Bond with 10 missing.

Another client of BFW's is concerned about his en primeur purchases.

It is not known whether these are isolated examples or whether Ken Gundlach's Bordeaux Fine Wines Ltd failed to buy a significant proportion of its clients' wine. If it transpires that there are many wines missing, then given that BFW's turnover was very close to £20 million (£4.9m dividend to sole shareholder – K. Gundlach) there ought to be a police investigation. Furthermore given the company's turnover BFW comes under the remit of the Serious Fraud Office.

We are concerned about investments
involving a man-made material called graphene. Find out more and how to protect
yourself.

We are receiving many reports from people
who have been offered investments in graphene, which is a type of carbon that
may one day be used in display screens, electrical circuits and batteries.

Why are we concerned?

We first uncovered this issue when we found
evidence of a 'graphene investment firm' on the computers of a suspected boiler
room. So we believe that the same firms that have sold other high risk, dubious
products such as carbon
credits, rare earth
metals and overseas land
and crops, are now trying to sell graphene.'

The FCA warning is very timely as just before Christmas a putative client of Mayfair Worldwide Trading Ltd passed me a contract from the company. The contract was an agreement to exchange wine for graphene:

Mayfair were kindly offering to exchange a half case (6 bottles) of 2006 Lafite Rothschild and a full case of 1996 Léoville Las Cases worth around £4800-£5000 for £6800 worth of graphene. Mayfair explain that:

'At Mayfair Worldwide Trading Limited we have introduced an Asset
Exchange program renowned within the city of London. We are currently
undergoing a multi-million pound asset exchange program to innovatively
get investors out of their under-performing assets with ease and
efficiency.'

I may be risk averse but if I had some 1996 Léoville and 2006 Lafite I would hang onto the wine, even though top Bordeaux has not performed well over the last couple of years. See Liv-ex blog here and Decanter here. Past experience suggests that in time the prices of these wines will increase and that wine should be seen as a medium to long term investment. So why would I want to take the risk with graphene even though Mayfair Worldwide Trading Ltd are kindly offering to exchange £6800 'worth' of graphene for wine worth less than £5000?

What in any case would I do with £6800 worth of graphene? Who would want it? The FCA point out that: 'Manufacturing companies that use the metals
almost always buy them in very large quantities, making it highly unlikely they
will deal with small independent retail consumers.'

Mayfair Worldwide Trading Ltd

Trusted Worldwide

What of Mayfair Worldwide Trading Ltd? Their glossy website claims that they are 'trusted worldwide' and that:

'With the combined knowledge and experience
of our dedicated team of advisers, wealth managers and analysts we believe that
we are the market leaders within the commodity sectors, we have an array of
products ranging from Gold and Oil to Diamonds and Graphene.

We believe client relationship is key and
that is the main cornerstone of our business, we work with many institutions
and individuals to always ensure we are setting the highest standards possible.

For all of your alternative investment
needs look no further than what our services can provide, our advisors are here
from Monday to Friday to fully consult to your investment needs.'

For a company that was only founded on 14th August 2013 to have become 'trusted worldwide' in less than five monthsand to be 'the market leaders' is a truly remarkable achievement! The genius running this company is 32-year-old Adam Edwards – amazingly for someone so talented this is his first directorship.

Under the heading 'Risk Warning' Mayfair Worldwide Trading Ltd warn that 'The information contained in this website is not intended to constitute and should not be construed as, investment advice. Wise words from Adam Edwards, which I'm pleased to say the putative investor heeded and decided to hang onto his wines and not transfer them to Mayfair Worldwide Trading Ltd's account. His wines had been purchased from European Fine Wines Ltd and he had told them that he wanted to sell them.

I shall heed Adam Edwards' warning and steer clear of his Mayfair Worldwide Trading Ltd as his company is not qualified to offer investment advice. Nor are they registered with the FCA, so no protection from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

We are concerned about investments
involving a man-made material called graphene. Find out more and how to protect
yourself.

We are receiving many reports from people
who have been offered investments in graphene, which is a type of carbon that
may one day be used in display screens, electrical circuits and batteries.

Why are we concerned?

We first uncovered this issue when we found
evidence of a 'graphene investment firm' on the computers of a suspected boiler
room. So we believe that the same firms that have sold other high risk, dubious
products such as carbon
credits, rare earth
metals and overseas land
and crops, are now trying to sell graphene.

Manufacturing companies that use the metals
almost always buy them in very large quantities, making it highly unlikely they
will deal with small independent retail consumers.

It has been reported to us that callers
promoting investments in graphene are using dubious, high-pressure sales
tactics and targeting vulnerable consumers. There is a strong possibility of fraud with
graphene because it is unregulated and it is difficult to confirm that you have
bought the genuine product.

Protection when investingRemember: if it sounds too good to be true,
it probably is!

Most firms promoting and selling
investments graphene are not authorised by us. We strongly advise you to only
deal with financial services firms that are authorised by us, and check our Register to ensure they
are.

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